According to the ICC Year 2001 Piracy Report, more than
330 attacks on seafaring vessels were reported in 2001 -
down by a quarter compared to 2000 but 10 percent
higher than 1999 and four times the 1991 figure. Piracy
rose 40 percent between 1998 and 1999 alone.
Sixteen ships - double the number in 2000 - were captured
and taken over in 2001. Eighty seven attacks were
reported during the first quarter of 2002 - up from 68 in
the corresponding period the year before. Seven of these
were hijackings - compared to only 1 in the first quarter of
2001. Nine of every 10 hijacked ships are ultimately
recovered, often with the help of the IMB.
Many masters and shipowners do not report piracy for
fear of delays due to protracted investigations, increased
insurance premiums, bad publicity, and stifling red tape.
The number of unreported attacks in 1999 was estimated
by the World Maritime Piracy Report to be 130.
According to "The Economist", the IMO believes that half
of all incidents remain untold. Still, increased patrols and
international collaboration among law enforcement
agencies dented the clear upward trend in maritime crime
- even in the piracy capital, Indonesia.
The number of incidents in the pirate-infested Malacca
Straits dropped from 75 in 2000 to 17 in 2001 - though the
number of crew "kidnap and ransom" operations,
especially in Aceh, has increased. Owners usually pay the
"reasonable" amounts demanded - c. $100,000 per ship.
Contrary to folklore, most ships are attacked while at
anchor.
Twenty one people, including passengers, were killed in
2001 - and 210 taken hostage. Assaults involving guns
were up 50 percent to 73 - those involving mere knives
down by a quarter to 105. Piracy seems to ebb and flow
with the business cycles of the host economies. The Asian
crisis, triggered by the freefall of the Thai baht in 1997-8,
gave a boost to East Asian maritime robbers. So did the
debt crises of Latin America a decade earlier. Drug
transporters - armed with light aircraft and high speed
motorboats - sometimes double as pirates during the dry
season of crop growth.
Pirates endanger ship and crew. But they often cause
collateral damage as well. Pirates have been known to
dump noxious cargo into the sea, or tie up the crew and let
an oil tanker steam ahead, its navigational aides smashed,
or tamper with substances dangerous to themselves and to
others, or cast crew and passengers adrift in tiny rafts with
little food and water.
Many shipowners resorted to installing on-board satellite
tracking systems, such as Shiploc, and aircraft-like "black
boxes". A bulletproof life vest, replete with an integral
jagged edged knife, was on display in the millennium
exhibition at the Millennium Dome two years ago. The
International Maritime Organization (IMO) is considering
to compel shipowners to tag their vessels with visibly
embossed numbers in compliance with the Safety of Life
at Sea Convention.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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